The present invention relates to a process for obtaining an uranous salt solution by electrolytically reducing an uranyl salt solution.
One of the conventional processes for obtaining an uranous salt is as follows.
Uranium mineral concentrate is dissolved in sulfuric acid or hydrochloric acid and is purified by means of a solvent extraction method to obtain a solution of uranyl sulfate UO.sub.2 SO.sub.4 or uranyl chloride UO.sub.2 Cl.sub.2. These uranyl salts are then electrolytically reduced to the corresponding uranous salts in an aqueous solution.
In this method, a platinum-plated titanium plate and a titanium plate are employed as an anode and a cathode, respectively, and both electrolytes are divided by a cation exchange membrane.
The uranyl salt is reduced to the uranous salt on the cathode at a current density of about 120 mA/cm.sup.2, and oxygen generation occurs on the anode so that the cell voltage is as high as over 4 V.
As mentioned before, the conventional method has a disadvantage that the electric energy required for the electrolytic reduction is quite high.